Lockheed Martin and General Motors are joining forces to develop a self-driven electric vehicle that will allow astronauts on the Moon to travel across the lunar regions. The two major firms aim to make vehicles that can carry astronauts to far away distances on the Moon.
An official statement says that the two companies are trying to “design the next generation of lunar rovers, capable of transporting astronauts across farther distances on the lunar surface,” letting the astronauts o beyond the 4-mile range set during NASA’s Apollo Moon missions.
Self-driven lunar vehicle
The two carmakers want to take it a notch higher by developing their autonomous rover, allowing the vehicle to drive itself with or without astronauts aboard. Since it’s a self-driven vehicle, the companies envision a rover to be able to navigate itself to the landing site and allow astronauts to climb aboard.
The announcement aligns with NASA’s plans to include more private companies to build landers and rovers for its Moon missions.
“These next-generation rover concepts will dramatically extend the exploration range of astronauts as they perform high-priority science investigation on the Moon that will ultimately impact humanity’s understanding of our place in the solar system,” said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president, Lockheed Martin Space.
South Pole exploration
The announcement follows NASA’s call to develop an unpressurized “Lunar Terrain Vehicle” (LTV) in 2020. NASA wants this vehicle to help astronauts explore the Moon’s South Pole.
Developing a vehicle that can survive on the lunar surface isn’t an easy task. A night on the Moon spans up to 14 days, which means the temperature gets very low for extended periods.
“The biggest difference is when you design for the Moon and for space applications, the force of gravity is different and has to be taken into account,” said Madhu Raghavan, global R&D group manager at GM. “There are extreme temperature swings, and the radiation in space becomes a challenge in terms of systems design. You’re also operating in a vacuum and designing your systems to withstand the shock of the actual launch.”
